Spanish authorities detain son of Rostec VP in connection with major tax fraud linked to Russian budget theft
On July 10, Dmitry Artyakov, the son of a Rostec vice president, was reportedly detained in Girona, Spain, on suspicions of engaging in a sophisticated tax fraud scheme linked to funds unlawfully taken from the Russian budget. This scheme was originally exposed by Sergei Magnitsky. According to media reports, investigations are ongoing with searches being conducted on Artyakov's Spanish properties. Artyakov, the son of the former governor of the Samara region, has faced sanctions from Ukraine, the US, and Canada since Russia's 2022 actions in Ukraine. However, he had avoided EU sanctions, allowing him free movement to Girona.
According to an indictment uncovered by Spain's Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, Dmitry's grandmother, Anna Kurepina, or Anna Kurepina Rueda as identified in Spain, transferred suspicious funds amounting to €12.7 million to her account at Caixa Girona. This stemmed from complex transactions involving questionable banks in Estonia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Lithuania. This sum was listed as a "loan" and utilized to purchase Spanish real estate that was then transferred to Artyakov, all recorded as settled within Russian borders. Spanish prosecutors, however, found "no evidence of loan repayment," tying these funds to the "Klyuev Organized Crime Group," infamous for siphoning $230 million from Russia's treasury.
The indictment also highlights that between April 10, 2008, and October 29, 2009, Delco Networks, S.A. deposited €12.72 million to account No. ES23 2030 0013 0335 0051 1964 belonging to Kurepina at Caixa de Girona. An additional €400,000 presumably moved via Dino Capital, S.A., a Panama-based entity. Both of these organizations, directed by Troika Dialog, operate from offshore havens, pointing to broader financial intrigue. These firms, Delco and Dino, actively funneled considerable funds to companies linked to Sergei Roldugin. Legal moves followed advocacy by a Hermitage Capital lawyer to Spain's Attorney General.
Spanish documents, dated back to 2019, reference theft set under Magnitsky's uncovered schema and channel to Roldugin's offshore accounts, first revealing themselves in the OCCRP's 2016 exposé.
Magnitsky, the late whistleblower imprisoned and tortured in Moscow's Butyrka prison, instigated media awareness when his findings anonymously featured in a Business Week report titled "Suspicious Lawsuits Filed Against Russian Investment Companies," noting efforts to claim millions in reclaimed taxes from firms associated with Hermitage Capital and Renaissance Capital. During this period, Bill Browder's office received overtures from Igor Sagiryan, a figure known for setting up early foreign banking ventures in tumultuous 1990s St. Petersburg under Mayor Sobchak and Deputy Putin. In the 2000s, Sagiryan held leadership roles at Renaissance Capital and Troika Dialog, and his perspectives were shared by The Insider.
The documentary "The Untouchables" asserts that in 2008, Sagiryan was in Dubai with then-tax official Olga Stepanova and her husband, Vladlen Stepanov. A whistleblower, Alexander Perepilichny, provided Hermitage with sensitive account data from Credit Suisse linked to Stepanov, believed to trace stolen funds. Perepilichny later died under mysterious circumstances. In Russia, Perepilichny faced lawsuits from Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi's business associates in opaque financial dealings. Notably, Lugovoi, identified by a British court and the ECHR as the assassin of Alexander Litvinenko, was involved in establishing Genbank in Crimea post-annexation with crime figures Dvoskin and Tyurik, with holdings officially recorded under his brother's name.